Indians Weekend Review: Blown Opportunities
July 18, 2011Breaking: Indians Send Grady Sizemore to the DL
July 18, 2011
If you ranked all the running backs in the NFL, where would you put Peyton Hillis? Obviously the cover of video games isn’t indicative of the truth. The real answer here is that nobody really knows for sure. The stats are incomplete and he really has only played meaningful snaps in two seasons. One of those was with a Broncos team coached by Mike Shanahan. The ghost of Reuben Droughns tells us to take those results with a grain of salt. For some reason Cleveland fans and media want to talk about it. Rizzo, Hammer and Fedor were discussing it last week on WKNR and the conversation leaked onto Twitter where we discussed it there. Here are the questions.
How good is Peyton Hillis amongst all NFL running backs?
Where does he rank in the AFC North between Rashard Mendenhall, Ray Rice and Cedric Benson?
Where does he rank in the NFL?
Does he fumble too much?
Is he durable enough?
Is he a one-year wonder?
When there are no actual football issues to discuss, these are the issues that take up our time. Here’s my take. It is a simple one. Based on what I saw last year, Peyton Hillis is good enough.
That’s it. Peyton Hillis isn’t without his faults. He runs in a manner that could easily lead to injury and fumbles, both of which he experienced last season. He also runs with enough violence and purpose that he can take over games, pump up his team and score touchdowns. He has the ability to get into space and catch the ball when asked to do so.
Would I take Mendenhall or Rice or Arian Foster over Peyton Hillis? Who cares? Peyton Hillis is here. He was brought here for next to nothing. He outperformed anybody that the Browns gave up by a long-shot. He has out-performed pretty much every single offensive player since the Browns have been back in 1999.
If you must go to the stats to determine where he ranks, do what you need to, but I’ll skip it. You just can’t control for all those important variables. Peyton Hillis ran behind the Browns line. He didn’t have a consistent QB handing him the ball all year long. He played for a team that failed to develop another offensive weapon beyond Ben Watson in the passing game. He played through injuries without any other running backs to spell him on the roster. He played for a run-heavy team that looked to play more ball control offense. Oh, and Brian Daboll.
If you want to make the argument that Peyton Hillis is the 3rd or 4th best running back in the AFC North, be my guest. I think it is senseless because all those guys were asked to do different kinds of things in different kinds of schemes with different kinds of teammates. Who is to say if Peyton Hillis wouldn’t be better than Ray Rice or Mendenhall if he played for those teams? Who is to say that he isn’t the worst out of them all?
At the end of it all, Hillis doesn’t need anyone to make excuses or arguments for him. He performed quite impressively more times than not a season ago. He earned the right to say he is #1 on the Browns depth chart going into this season. He was good enough that running back wasn’t a huge priority on draft day this season for Tom Heckert and Mike Holmgren, despite the drafting of Owen Marecic. Hillis is very very far from being an embarrassment to the Browns no matter who plays the same position around the league.
What we should really be concerned about is figuring out who could emerge as a 1a type of running back for the Browns to take some of the load off.
14 Comments
Peyton Hillis drove Dawan Landry backwards 15 yards just to see him cry.
Chuck Norris is afraid to be Peyton Hillis’ sparring partner.
Peyton Hillis drags trucks around in the offseason for fun.
Peyton Hillis has been called the best RB in the NFL by national publications (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/520374-peyton-hillis-is-the-nfls-chuck-norris-is-he-also-the-best-running-back)
The Red Zone Channel is being renamed Peyton Hillis’ Whipping Post for the upcoming season.
Not all of the above statements are complete hyperbole.
Yeah, he fumbled some last year, but one of his AFC North counterparts is a “fumbling machine”, right? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
And… he doesn’t get in trouble, he’s humble, he’s blue collar (look at the photo for crying out loud), he loves the city, and he puts the lord first. In the words of Nick Gilbert, “what’s not to like?”
This offense could be dangerous when you add the pieces up… Colt, Hillis, Hardesty, G-Little, Watson, Cameron, MoMass, and Robo. I love the fact that all of those guys are under the age of 25 except for Watson of course.
Sincerely,
Excited Browns Fan
@Matty Ice – I am upset that you didn’t include Alex Mack in your 25&under list of reasons why our offense could be sneaky-good.
I would also make it a 26&under list so we can include Joe Thomas.
Is there a Peyton Hillis/Chuck Norris-esque website anywhere? I need a few laughs this Monday…
@oribasi – follow the link from the bleacherreport above and it links back to a Chuck Norris / Peyton Hillis article (or just google it)
man it must suck listening to KNR. from the reports i’ve read, they seem like the audio equivalent of blog trolls– staking out an unpopular POVs to get responses.
mgbode, please take back calling the bleacher report a “national publication.” I think I just threw up a little.
The season really needs to start so we can stop with the ridiculous and utterly subjective rankings and contrived debates that everyone from NFL Network to ESPN to “Horrible Talk Radio Hosts Trolling Their Listening Area” continues to put out. I could not be less concerned with who the Top 100 NFL players are, which AFCN city has the best tailgating, or where Peyton Hillis ranks among NFL RBs. Let’s hope Thursday really does bring the end of this lockout nonsense so we can get down to what matters: the Browns putting the best product they can out on the field every Sunday.
@ mgbode- I left off the oline in general. They dont like recognition. They just want to mash D-Linemen and eat. Mack and Thomas are straight monsters though. Remember the days when we had the worst o-line in football…. ugh. Good to have those boys in orange and brown.
@Scott – well, they are in the same sense that MAD Magazine was (purely for entertainment purposes and oftentimes not that entertaining, but I kept reading)
@Matty Ice – good point. don’t forget fishing/hunting though in things they want to do.
@b-bo and craig… in the time since craig put this piece out two more breathtakingly uninteresting and contrived debate fodder was put forward by the WWL:
1. should college athletes be paid?
geez, i dunno. i just kinda thought athletes should be able to do what they want with their private property and that it seems harsh that a college team needs to forfeit their season because of it. not sure how that morphed into PAYING COLLEGE PLAYERS. shades of gray, capturing nuance… these are not spelled ESPN.
2. did the USWNT ‘choke’?
choke? really? does it matter? who cares? what’s the point of the question?
maybe the better poll question would be ‘is ESPN a mean, self-absorbed, shallow media creation catering to the basest elements of sports fandom and lowering the level of discourse while at the same time devoid of integrity and devoted to the proposition that profit makes right?’ yes, that would be a better poll question.
“What we should really be concerned about is figuring out who could emerge as a 1a type of running back for the Browns to take some of the load off.”
The Browns need to seriously try to sign Noel Devine as an undrafted rookie. Between him and Hardesty, there would be production to help take the load of Hillis.
I”l indulge the inferred question.
Better than Benson and Mendenhall. Equal to Rice (both have big upsides and can catch out the backfield)